Lawsuit: CBS Used "Harness Of Pain"

A California couple yesterday (12/17) filed suit against CBS claiming that the duo's female member was seriously injured during the filming of a reality-TV pilot featuring a competition involving a device dubbed the "Harness of Pain." According to this Los Angeles Superior Court complaint, Jill Mouser and boyfriend Marcus Russell were recruited in late-September as contestants for "Culture Shock," a one-hour program ordered by CBS and produced by Rocket Science Laboratories, the firm behind reality shows like "Temptation Island" and the upcoming "Joe Millionaire." The pilot, emceed by "Weakest Link" host George Gray, involved five couples competing in physical competitions, with the winning pair receiving as much as $75,000. Mouser and Russell allege that, after they won the show's first three events, they had to compete in a final competition "re-enacting a Native American rite-of-passage, wherein a young man was pierced twice through his torso with a pole and left suspended in the air by the pole for a period of time." Instead of being pierced by a pole, Mouser was hoisted up in the "Harness of Pain," which left her screaming in "excruciating pain" and in a cold sweat. "When the paramedics arrived, Mouser was injected with morphine to quiet her down, placed on a backboard and driven to a hospital, over an hour away." The complaint, which does not specify exact monetary damages, contends that the "physical and emotional pain" endured by Mouser and Russell was "far more than that which they had arguably bargained for." (14 pages)